UGC Strategies to Add to Your Marketing Plan

Traditional marketing is increasing in cost and losing effectiveness. As a result, marketers need more budget-friendly ways to connect with their target audience to drive brand awareness and sales. UGC, or user-generated content, encourages engaged customers to produce content for your company. By adding this to your marketing mix, you can ease your budget while still reaching customers through organic content. Wondering what kind of UGC strategies work? The best strategies are fueled by advocacy marketing. 

What’s advocacy marketing?

Advocacy marketing leverages highly satisfied customers to drive positive word-of-mouth, UGC, and referrals. It’s a preferred marketing tactic in today’s world of strained budgets because it’s inexpensive, effective, and can potentially return a high ROI. 

An advocacy marketing strategy that nets UGC

If you’re looking to utilize your customer base as product marketers, here’s a look at the steps you can take to get started: 

1. Set UGC goals

If you plan to leverage UGC content on a regular basis, think about what you hope it will accomplish. Identify your goals and list the KPIs that you’ll monitor to gauge success. Share this information with your team so everyone works towards the same goal. 

2. Consider an advocacy marketing platform

While you can launch UGC campaigns on your own, an advocacy marketing platform can help you identify and mobilize your customers. With Zuberance, you can ask customers to: 

• Share testimonials
• Write product reviews
• Refer a friend
• Answer questions from interested customers
• Create and share product-specific content on social

Here’s how it works. You invite customers to join the platform and set up a rewards structure that incentivizes them to take action. Customers can work towards incentives like gift cards, free swag, or tickets to a unique experience, encouraging them to produce consistent content over time. 

3. Make a plan to collect UGC

To collect UGC, you need a plan. With an advocacy marketing platform, you can ask customers to provide UGC with a few clicks, but if you’re not using one, you’ll need to invest more energy. To collect UGC, you can: 

Host a social contest

One of the most popular ways to gather UGC is through a social contest. For example, you can ask customers to submit a photo of your product in use for a chance to win a prize. 

Maxi Cosi, a retailer of car seats, strollers, and baby gear, asked its customers to share a picture of their favorite “Maxi Moment” for a chance to win a free stroller. Participants had to share the snap, use the brand’s hashtag, and follow their page to be eligible to win. 

Ongoing UGC campaign

Think of an ongoing effort to encourage customers to share UGC. Many brands ask customers to share a picture after they make a purchase. 

When the customer checks out, they could receive a small postcard encouraging them to post and tag your brand, or if it’s a digital checkout, the information could be included in the receipt email.  

Lush Cosmetics encourages its customers to share snaps of product purchases or new looks using the hashtag #LushCommunity. 

Create a challenge

Give your customers a challenge to complete. Ask customers to make a daring recipe with your brand’s ingredients, for example, or challenge them to include your product in a dance routine for TikTok. 

Think of a challenge related to your product, set some ground rules, and activate your customers. 

During the pandemic, Cricut, a craft brand, challenged its users to create an inspirational window cling in its #CricutWindowChallenge.

4. Engage with creators

A UGC campaign should be engaging. Make sure someone from your brand likes or comments on submissions as they come in. Ask customers questions and add insightful thoughts to keep the buzz and the conversation going. In short, show customers you appreciate their efforts. 

5. Plan to repurpose it

One of the best ways to stretch your UGC content is to take some of the best submissions and repurpose them. You can add them to a special picture gallery on your website, include a few snaps in your next newsletter, or add them to a printed brochure you hand out to clients. 

Brands can effectively transition happy customers into advocates who produce promotional UGC. With an advocacy marketing platform, you can create a reward structure that incentivizes customers to support your brand publicly. If you’re ready to collect UGC, Zuberance, an IZEA company, can help your brand. Learn more about the platform today.

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